Biographies

David Rawlins is the Chief Technology Officer at the HVM Catapult Centre at WMG.

Prior to joining WMG, Dave has spent most of his professional career at Ricardo, most recently as Head of Software Solutions leading the diversification and growth of Ricardo Software digitalisation solutions across alternative powertrain technology areas and alternative business sectors including energy, water, rail and marine sectors.

Before this, David has held a number of other senior technical leadership roles in Ricardo including Project Director for Large Engines and Power Generation, Chief Engineer for Clean Energy and Power Generation and Head of Powertrain and Vehicle Thermofluids.

David is a chartered engineer and a Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He gained a MEng in Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College.

Mike Waters is Director of Policy, Strategy & Innovation at Transport for West Midlands, a department also incorporating transport, planning, research and data services activity and hosting the West Midlands modelling services. Mike developed the regional UK pathfinder Future Mobility Zone, sponsors the West Midlands 5G mobility programme and transport innovation programmes.

He sits on the Midlands Future Mobility Board, Zenzic UK CAV Hub Steering and Advisory Boards and on the SMART Transport Editorial Board. Mike is also embedded in Coventry University’s Future Transport and Cities Research Institute as a researcher focused on privacy concerns in Connected and Autonomous Vehicles.

Professor Jan Godsell joined WMG in October 2013 from her prior position of Senior Lecturer at Cranfield University School of Management.

Professor Godsell's career has been split between both industry and academia. She joined the faculty of Cranfield in 2001, following the completion of her Executive MBA there. She also completed her PhD at Cranfield, researching the development of a customer responsive supply chain.

Prior to her return to academia, Professor Godsell developed a successful career within industry, beginning at ICI/Zeneca Pharmaceuticals. Following this, she worked up to senior management level at Dyson, in both Supply Chain and Operations Management functions. At Dyson, she undertook a number of operational and process improvement roles within R&D, customer logistics, purchasing and manufacturing.

Professor Godsell is a Chartered Engineer and Member of the IMechE. She is on the board and scientific committee of EurOMA (European Operations Management Association), the cabinet of the UK roundtable of CSCMP (Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals) and the manufacturing steering committee of the IMechE. She is on the editorial board of 3 journals, including the International Journal of Operations and Production Management, and she is an advocate for improving the uptake of STEM subjects by school children.

After graduating with a degree in Electronic Engineering from UMIST, Dr Kate Bailey has gained 25 years of experience working in Operations and Supply Chain across industry, academia and consultancy. She started her career working in operational roles in the electronics and automotive manufacturing sectors, including a position at Toyota, working with their European supply chain on readiness for new models. She has spent the last few years working in both research and consultancy, helping organisations to build more effective supply chains. She gained her PhD in 2016, which examined the robustness of UK food supply chains in light of increasing global uncertainties.

She joined WMG in 2018 and is responsible for the delivery of the applied research portfolio for the Supply Chain Research Group. Her current research projects include optimising end-to-end supply chains within the automotive sector, developing novel approaches for supply chain diagnostics and the development of new supply chain hybrid models to combine make-to-stock and make-to order systems

Alex Zafeiriadis has a background in Project Management, developing innovative agricultural machinery after completing his studies for the MEng, mechanical engineering at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He also completed his MSc in Engineering Business Management (with Distinction) and was awarded the Departmental Prize 2018 from WMG for his excellent performance in coursework and the dissertation project with Tata Steel Europe.

Alex joined WMG as a Project Engineer working with Jaguar Land Rover, Siemens, Vodafone and Highways England, among others, to identify collaborative business opportunities for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles. He is currently working on building supply chain designs to anchor technological innovation for Autonomous, Connected, Electric and Shared vehicles, developing strategic and commercially sensible network designs to maximise the role of the UK supply chains globally.